Soil is undeniably the most essential part of a garden. To create a beautiful and healthy garden, your foundation or the soil needs to be of top-notch quality. Feeding the soil literally will allow it to improve and provide the nutrients your plants need to thrive.
There are plenty of things you can do to improve garden soil. The easiest way is to use organic matter, such as homemade compost, animal manure, and mulch.
It does not matter whether you have dry soil or sandy soil. As long as you take the necessary steps to improve garden soil, your garden will be just fine. So, to learn more about how to improve garden soil, keep reading.
How To Improve Garden Soil: 6 Easy Steps
There are a couple of key steps you can follow to improve your garden soil without spending a lot of money. Creating a nutritious environment for your plants is not a complicated process.
Unfortunately, many people tend to believe the opposite. If you follow the 6 easy steps mentioned below properly, then I assure you, your home garden will look better than ever within a few months.
Step 1: Determine The Soil Type
The first step to improving soil health is understanding what type of soil you have in your garden. This will allow you to figure out your plan of action as well as prevent you from wasting time following the wrong type of treatment. In addition, you can also pick plants based on the type of soil you have for better results.
Soil types are generally determined by their physical makeup, which in turn affects their drainage, water retention, aeration, etc. All soils contain three essential components: clay, sand, and silt.
- Sandy soil: This type of soil consists mostly of sand and large chunks of particles. It is pretty gritty in texture. Sandy soil drains very fast so plants in this type of soil are often dehydrated.
- Clay Soil: This type of soil is quite moist and densely packed due to its high clay content. It can often cause drowning or overwatering in plants as water does not get properly absorbed in clay soil. However, if you learn to manage it properly, then creating a fertile base for your plants will be extremely easy.
- Silt soil: Compared to the other two types, silt soil is smoother and has better water absorption quality. It is not as dense as clay or as dry as sandy soil, so with proper care, you can certainly benefit from it.
The easiest way to figure out what type of soil you have in your garden is by doing a feel test.
- Grab a handful of soil, preferably moist, from your garden and squeeze it tightly.
- If it feels gritty and does not hold its shape very well, then you most likely have sandy soil in your garden. If it feels moist, quite smooth, and sticky and holds its shape somewhat well, then you most likely have clay soil.
Step 2: Consider A Soil Test To Determine Its pH Levels
Doing a pH test for your soil is extremely beneficial for your plants. It will allow you to understand what nutrients your garden soil is lacking and you can take necessary steps to fix it.
In addition, imbalanced pH levels directly hinder the growth of plants. It can also affect fertilizer and nutrient absorption in plants.
You can do a pH test by ordering a test kit and conducting it yourself.
- If your soil scores below 7, then it means it is acidic. Most plants thrive in acidic soil with a pH level of 6 to 6.8. However, some plants require stronger and more acidic soil to grow properly.
- If your soil scores 7, then it is neutral.
- If your soil scores over 7, then it is alkaline. Usually, the soil in drier climate conditions leans towards alkaline.
If you want to make your soil more acidic, you can add compost, sulfur, aged wood chips, and pine needles to the soil. These materials slowly acidify the ground. If you want to make your soil alkaline, you can use limestone.
Most importantly, wait 6 to 8 weeks before conducting another pH test to see if there have been any significant changes or not.
Step 3: Incorporate Organic Matter or Homemade Compost
The most important ingredient when it comes to soil improvement is organic matter. It feeds the soil’s microbes, which break down all the nutrients found in the soil.
This makes nutrient absorption easier for plants. Simply speaking, you feed the soil organic matter, and the soil feeds the plants better.
There are two ways to add organic matter to garden soil. You can directly add organic matter such as leaves, vegetable scraps, lawn clippings, worm castings, shredded paper, coffee grounds, etc to your soil.
The ideal time to add these directly to the soil is in the fall. This will allow the organic matter to break down right in spring.
Another method is collecting all these ingredients and storing them in your backyard or garden. Once everything starts to decompose, you can slowly add it to the soil. This process is referred to as composting.
Homemade compost is a form of rotted organic matter that is both affordable and sustainable. It adds proper nutrition to the soil and helps retain moisture in sandy soils for a very long time.
For clay soils, homemade compost breaks up the last particles in the soil, which improves aeration.
Compost feeds earthworms, which create little air pockets as they tunnel through the ground. This essentially increases aeration and allows improved water absorption.
Step 4: Use Animal Manure
A great way to increase the health of garden soil is to use plenty of fertilizer in it. However, packaged fertilizers are often quite expensive, and many garden owners do not even prefer to use them.
In such instances, you can use animal manure as fertilizer in the soil.
Animal manure adds phosphorus to the soil. This increases soil health and fertility. But do not use fresh manure. It contains extreme levels of nitrogen. This can burn and kill plants.
Instead, collect animal manure and store it for a few months. After the manure has aged and decomposed, you can directly add it to the soil. Or you can mix it with the compost and use it.
You can use cow, horse, rabbit, and sheep droppings as fertilizer. However, avoid droppings from meat-eating animals. These can contain harmful bacteria and pathogens, which can cause more damage.
If you live near a farm then you can source animal manure from them. But be sure to enquire if the manure is contaminated or not. Animals can eat chemically treated hay, which causes contamination in their droppings.
Step 5: Use Garden Beds To Avoid Causing Soil Compaction
One of the biggest causes behind soil health deterioration is soil compaction. Whether you have sandy soil or clay soil, if you are not careful enough, then it might happen in your garden, too!
Compacted soil does not have proper water absorption, which hinders plant growth. It also cannot absorb as much nutrients either.
Using organic matter in the soil fixes soil compaction and improves the structure slowly.
However, for an instant fix, using garden beds for your plants is a great idea. Walking all over the soil essentially weighs it down and causes compaction. Instead, add a few garden beds and create a walking path in between. Make sure there is plenty of space between each bed to ensure you do not step on the soil at all.
Step 6: Plant Cover Crops or ‘Green Manure’
Cover crops or green manure refer to fast-growing plants such as peas, legumes, clover, ryegrass, etc. Cover crops are planted at the end of the season and remain in the garden till winter.
Just as the name suggests, cover crops act as a cover from extreme weather conditions for the soil. It protects the soil from mud erosion, compaction, weed growth etc.
Near the start of the gardening season, you can use remaining cover crops as fertilizer or ‘green manure.’ Simply dig it under the soil and it will soon break down. These plants are essentially nitrogen collectors that boost soil health.
Final words
One of the most common misconceptions regarding soil health is that it can be improved instantly. Many garden owners feel defeated when the health of their garden soil has not improved within a week or so.
But the truth is, in this case, trusting the process and continuing at it is the best option at hand. The result, which is improved soil condition and a better garden overall, is surely worth the wait.
So, if you follow these steps properly and allow enough time, your garden soil will undoubtedly improve significantly.
